The Guitar Refinishing and Restoration ForumThis discussion forum is hosted by The Guitar ReRanch and was created to serve those interested in the arcane art/science of guitar refinishing and restoration. Those with all levels of experience are welcomed to participate.

Maybe this is common knowledge, but I haven't seen it anywhere, so I thought I'd share it.

I can't remember what forum it was on, but I stumbled across someone swearing by the Cardinal Paint nitro lacquer for his builds. Not the instrument lacquer they sell. This is called Series 2000 Modified Nitrocellulose Lacquer. He was saying it was the closest thing to the old formula of lacquers used back in the glory days.

So I called Cardinal to ask some questions. The guy I spoke with was super knowledgeable, and confirmed for me that indeed the Series 2000 has had only the smallest changes to the formula since the 1950s and wasn't up to modern standards as far as plasticizers go, but was still used in some metal working applications.

I asked him about tinting it, and he said it comes in clear and several basic stock colors: white, black, red, yellow, etc. He said they can also do custom tints, or any of the colors in their color catalog. I asked him if they had the formulas for the old Dupont automotive colors. He said no, but if I sent him a sample they could color match it. At this point I explained to him that I was finishing guitars and was looking for the classic Fender colors.

He kinda perked up and said, that the Fender Custom Shop was right near by and that they did color matching for the custom shop on vintage guitars, mixed custom colors, and also mixed the standard colors for them based off of formulas they were provided. I asked if he could shoot those formulas for me and said there's nothing proprietary about them and that they have records of the formulas they shoot and that I could use any of them I wanted.

There are a few downsides. It's not exactly cheap, though not outrageous. I think the clear is around $60 a gallon, and then colors start around $75 up to $100+. He said the one upside of the 2000 series is that it's formulated to be thinned by 50% by the end user. So a gallon will go a long way. Also, because they are a smaller California based company there aren't a ton of locations around the country, (the closest one to me is 4 hours away in Dallas). You can check their website for a location near you. http://www.cardinalpaint.com/contact#locations

They will ship anywhere in the continental USA, though it's probably not cheap. They'll mix colors in quarts, singles and fives. It wasn't cost effective to get quarts though, I think they were still $40-$50 for custom tints.

Anyway, for those using a spray rig and are having trouble finding good color matches, this might be a good resource.

am I alone in thinking this is kind of......not cool to advertise someone else's Nitro on Bill's site? I think Bill does a spectacular job with his products. Sorry if I am being too "sensitive", but this post just rubs me the wrong way. Why would you talk about another manufactures paint, on a Web forum from a paint website.

am I alone in thinking this is kind of......not cool to advertise someone else's Nitro on Bill's site? I think Bill does a spectacular job with his products. Sorry if I am being too "sensitive", but this post just rubs me the wrong way. Why would you talk about another manufactures paint, on a Web forum from a paint website.

Excuse me if I am being too whiny.

As far as I know, reranch doesn’t sell by the gallon, only aerosol. I have seen lots of discussion here on the forum about different lacquers and products that are not for sale on the site. I think you’d be on to something if I was promoting another companies aerosol cans, because that would be direct competition.

I think it’s highly unlikely that someone coming here to buy a $15 dollar can of lacquer would read that post and go out to buy $1000 hvlp sprayer and then buy $100 gallon of color to shoot their guitar. If the moderator of this board feels differently then I have no problem with the post being taken down. But like I said, a quick scan of past posts will show lots of discussion about different lacquers and products not for sale here.

Cost effectiveness, the best way to go is to buy ReRanch colors, then buy the big box store nitro in gallons. Even though I have a spray setup, I still use Bill's colors because of convenience and truest of color formulation. And I'm 2 hours away from him so my orders are received within 2 days. I do vary in what I look for, but my customers liked the products and finishes options throughout the years, with no need to change.

Yeah, you can tint nitro easily to produce the colors you need to do a job, say a 3 tone burst, but why waste the time when you can get it from Bill at a reasonable price. In finishing, there so many variables, why reinvent the wheel with unknown products

And I don't thrust the formulations out of California, as they are different that the rest of the country. I used to live there doing cabinet work and guitar refinishing until they started bringing in the new EPA laws and formulations that didn't work anymore. I still have a gallon of old formula Frazee paint store nitro that I use from time to time to get the right coloring I'm looking for. Anyways, that's JMHO___________________________________________________
#313. Praisegig

Kurt, we have a lot of guys here that use spray rigs, I don't think it's a big deal. In the past I know Bill has been cool with it._________________i wait here in this hole
playing poker with my soul
i hold the rifle close to me
it lights the way to keep me free

I've got several good spray guns, and prefer to use them over aerosols. I've called ReRanch several times, because I wanted to know if their colors were available in pints or quarts. I've never been able to get an answer to calls, and haven't tried email. I live near Austin, and I'd drive up there to buy the colors I want. If I can't get the colors from ReRanch, I'll find them elsewhere.

I thought small businesses were supposed to be better at customer service....

Welcome to Reranch Customer Service, courtesy of the membership, sponsored by the man himself.

It's chili season, so Bill's off cookin'. He's a busy man anyway, so we just handle it here. If there's an issue with an order you cam PM Bill directly. His user name is Guitars. But since it's chili season ...